Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), dont le véritable nom est Samuel Langhorne Clemens, est né dans la Missouri. Orphelin de père à l'âge de douze ans, il exerce plusieurs métiers : typographe, rédacteur dans un journal, pilote de bateau à vapeur sur le Mississipi. Ne voulant pas se battre au côté des sudistes pour le maintien de l'esclavage, il s'enfuit vers les montagnes du Névada et devient chercheur d'or. A partir de 1864, il exerce l'activité de reporter à San Francisco et se déplace en Europe en tant que correspondant de presse. Romancier, humoriste et essayiste, il décrira avec réalisme et sévérité la société américaine.
Born in the first few decades of the seventeenth century, Aphra Behn is one of early literature’s best-known female writers. Behn had the lucky distinction of being able to support herself strictly by her “pen,” something unheard of for women of her time. Throughout her long career, she wrote in various forms—poetry, plays, prose—and is known as a member of the ‘fair triumvirate of wit’ alongside fellow scribes Eliza Haywood and Delarivier Manley. Although little is known about her early life, Behn’s father held a post as lieutenant governor of Surinam, and Behn’s experiences during her stay most likely formed the basis for her most famous work, Oroonoko. Behn was also a popular dramatist in her time, penning critical successes like The Rover and The Feigned Courtesans. Her literary exploits aside, Behn is also known to have acted as a political spy for King Charles II of England during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Behn died in 1689, and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Born in Nigeria in 1745, Olaudah Equiano was a well-known African abolitionist. Equiano was shipped to the West Indies as a child-slave, and then to England where he was purchased by Lieutenant Michael Pascal and trained as a seaman before serving in The Seven Years’ War. At the conclusion of hostilities, Pascal did not free Equiano as promised, but instead sold him to Captain James Doran who then sold Equiano to James King, a merchant from Philadelphia. In 1765, King let Equiano purchase his freedom for forty pounds, and helped him earn money in his stead as a merchant. Now a free man, Equiano returned to London where he made significant contributions to the abolitionist movement, and published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, which influenced the Slave Trade Act of 1807. Equiano is believed to have died in 1797 at the age of 52.
Sojourner Truth, born into slavery in the late 1790s as Isabella Baumfree, was the first African-American woman to win a court case when she reclaimed her son from the man who sold him back into slavery after his emancipation. After changing her name, Truth travelled as a Methodist preacher and spoke out regularly on behalf of the abolitionist cause. In 1851, at the Ohio’s Women Rights Convention, Truth delivered her most well-known speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” During her lifetime, Truth spoke out about many causes, including women’s suffrage, prison reform, property rights for former slaves, and she encouraged African-Americans to enlist in the Union Army. Her activism led her to make connections with many of her contemporary abolitionists such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frances Gage. In 1850, Truth’s dictated her memoir, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, to her friend Olive Gilbert and the title was soon met with acclaim by abolitionist readers and supporters. Truth died in 1883 and was buried alongside her family in Battle Creek, Michigan.
Título : Living to Tell the Horrid Tales: True Life Stories of Fomer Slaves, Historical Documents & Novels
EAN : 8596547761624
Editorial : DigiCat
El libro electrónico Living to Tell the Horrid Tales: True Life Stories of Fomer Slaves, Historical Documents & Novels está en formato ePub protegido por Filigrane numérique
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